Xander, APG to invest $300 million to buy office spaces in India
Investment's size may be increased to $500 million, if bigger opportunities continue to emerge, the firms say
Bangalore: Global investment firm The Xander Group Inc. and an investor consortium led by Dutch pension fund asset manager APG Asset Management NV will invest $300 million (Rs1,800 crore) through a venture that will buy income-generating, commercial office assets in big Indian cities.
If bigger opportunities continue to emerge, the venture’s size may be increased to $500 million, the firms said on Monday. “In spite of the recent slowdown, India’s top six cities have consistently witnessed the largest net absorption of office space in the Asia-Pacific region, and perhaps globally," Sachin Doshi, head of non-listed real estate investments for Asia-Pacific at APG Asset Management based in Hong Kong, said in a statement.
“This, combined with limited new development starts for office projects in India, creates a unique demand-supply gap for good quality office space that our venture aims to target," Doshi said.
Rohan Sikri, partner at Xander Group Inc. in Singapore, said the venture was part of an effort by the investment firm to develop “unique strategies that deliver required risk adjusted returns to them."
“While Indian office market has been relatively resilient through the bad economic environment of the last few years, buyers of Indian office assets need to have the skill to identify and address complex title, construction and regulatory risks, and sweat the real estate after acquisition to preserve and create value," Sikri said.
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